By Jane Chung and Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO posted its highest quarterly profit since 2011 and said it expected sales for all of 2018 to be lifted by higher steel prices.
The world's fifth-largest steelmaker raised its revenue outlook for the full-year to 64.8 trillion won ($57.0 billion) from its previous forecast of 64.1 trillion won in July, POSCO said in its filing on Tuesday.
POSCO's consolidated operating profit rose 36 percent to 1.5 trillion won for July-September, versus 1.1 trillion won a year earlier, the steelmaker said.
The profit jump was higher than an average estimate of 1.4 trillion won from 11 analysts, according to Refinitiv data.
POSCO's revenue in the third quarter rose 9.1 percent from a year earlier to 16.4 trillion won, beating the analysts' estimate of 16 trillion won.
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Steel prices in China, the world's biggest consumer and producer of the construction material, have risen nearly 20 percent this year, supported by disruptions to output from policies aimed at tackling pollution and excess capacity.
POSCO shares were 1.3 percent lower as of 0500 GMT, after the earnings announcement was released, in a wider market that fell 2.5 percent.
($1 = 1,137.0800 won)
(Reporting By Jane Chung and Ju-min Park; Additional reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA; Editing by Tom Hogue)